[dragontamer]

Funny you bring up the Manhattan project, as the actual uranium was purified by the "Calutron Girls".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calutron_Girls

These were high school graduates (largely female), who sat around fiddling with the controls to manually run the uranium purification knobs.

Apparently, engineers and scientists were really bad at this job. I don't know how they figured it out, but high school females had just the right mindset to watch the control panel and move the dials correctly.

None of the Calutron Girls knew they were making the bomb. In fact, the article where I read about them was an interview with an old-lady in the 2000s, who was surprised to learn that her high-school summer job was building the A-Bomb!! I think they were told that it was very important for the war effort that they do their job correctly, but that was about it.

------------

So even for an incredibly complicated job like the Manhattan project (which obviously needed top-tier scientists), it turns out that top-tier scientists / engineers simply don't have the mindset to do some dreary day-to-day tasks. Other people (such as the Calutron Girls) may end up having a better mindset to do these parts of the job.

I wouldn't be surprised if our understanding of human psychology, sociology, and group-dynamics are still poor today. The ideal team composition is still a big mystery, especially on big hypothetical jobs like a "Manhattan Project".

[Joker_vD]

Yep, before we had mechanical and electronic computers, there were human computers, and they apparently too were mostly women: [0] . I think (but it's just a speculation of mine) that it's not because women inherently have a "better mindset to do some dreary day-to-day tasks" but that it's an acquired trait: I blame it on heavy training in cleaning and sewing.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_(occupation)

[dragontamer]

That very well could be it.

I probably should be more specific: the enrichment facility had roughly 20,000 employees. That's more than enough time for managers to figure out who was good and/or bad at the job, as well as to build stereotypes / culture for how to pick out a good candidate for hiring.

It very well could be that these women had tedious hobbies (such as sewing, crochets, or other textile work), which made them predisposed to passing whatever tests the enrichment facility had.

In either case, the end result is the room full of tens of thousands of young women.

---------

Another link on the Calutron Girls: https://www.energy.gov/articles/five-fast-facts-about-calutr...